1. Starting Over (1979)

In his long film career, Burt Reynolds was in a lot of
terrible movies and a handful of great ones. Starting Over is probably his
best. Reynolds is at his most charmingly human as a recently divorced man
trying to date again. In addition to terrific supporting performances by
Charles Durning and Candice Bergen, there is a phenomenal script by James L.
Brooks (who went on to produce The Simpsons, Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets and all other kinds of greatness), and steady, elegant direction by Alan J. Pakula.

2. The Wrong Guy (1997)

In The Wrong Guy, Dave Foley plays a man on the run who
actually isnât being chased at all. For a good stretch, The Wrong Guy is the
funniest Hitchcock homage since High Anxiety, packed with absurdly funny scenes
(watching Foley crouched inside a dumpster while police officers sing around a
trash can fire is worth the price of rental alone.) The ending is ungainly and
slow-paced, but the first hour is full of solid laughs.

3. Movers and Shakers (1985)

This Hollywood story scripted by Charles Grodin is the most
imperfect movie on this list, but a fascinating specimen in and of itself.
Grodin plays a screenwriter tasked with adapting a sex manual into a major
motion picture and Walter Matthau plays a producer assigned to oversee the
film. The story never quite takes off, but itâs worth seeing for Steve Martinâs
cameo as an aging Latin lothario named Fabio so eerily similar to Billy
Crystalâs Fernando, we can only assume the two comedians came up with similar
characters at the same time Crystalâs was the one that stuck. (This one might
take some tracking down because itâs not on DVD.)

4. Little Murders (1971)

Based on Jules Feifferâs play of the same name, this comedy
came out the same year as A Clockwork Orange and shares the same black-humored,
risk-taking spirit. Directed by Alan Arkin and
featuring a great performance by Elliot Gould, Little Murders was Feifferâs
reaction to a violent decade of assassinations. Forty years after its release,
it can now be seen as a hilarious and shocking American classic.

5. Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004)

Martin Short reprised the character of Jiminy Glick from his Comedy Central series to create a low budget, mostly improvised comedy. Itâs
a scattershot enterprise, but worth watching just to see Shortâs David Lynch
impression, one of the most esoteric moments Iâve ever seen in an ostensibly
mainstream comedy.

6. The Fortune (1975

One of the best movies not yet released on DVD, The
Fortune features Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty as con men scheming to defraud
a wealthy heiress. Imagine a Coen brothers movie before the Coen brothers
were making movies. If you ever come across it on
television, donât skip it.

7. Real Life (1979)

I hesitate mentioning this film because a lot of comedy fans are already acquainted with Real Life, but just in case you haven't seen Albert Brooks' prophetic masterpiece, track it down and watch it today. It is the perfect movie about reality television and it arrived nearly twenty years before the reality TV craze started. All in all, one of the best comedies ever made.